Matthew 5:5 reads, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
3 Nephi 12:5 reads, "And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
It was timely that I read and studied this beatitude today. I need much meekness - especially after a 'conversation' I had last night.
Neal A. Maxwell, who relentlessly focused on discipleship throughout his life, dissected the topic of meekness in a talk he gave just over 30 years ago today: Meekness - A Dimension of True Discipleship.
The talk should be read in its entirety - several times. But I will copy a few poignant excerpts into this post.
"if one needs any further persuasion as to how vital this virtue is, Moroni warned, 'none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart.' (Moroni 7:43-44). If we could but believe, really believe, in the reality of that bold but accurate declaration, you and I would find ourselves focusing on the crucial rather than the marginal tasks in life! We would then cease pursuing the lifestyles which, inevitably and irrevocably, are going out of style!"
...
"God, who has seen billions of spirits pass through His plan of salvation, has told us to be meek in order to enhance our enjoyment of life and our mortal education. Will we be meek and listen to Him? Or will we be like the Gardarene swine, that pathetic example of totus porcus - going whole hog after the trends of the moment?"
...
"Since God desired to have us become like Himself, He first had to make us free to learn and to experience; hence, our humility and teachability are premiere determinants of our progress and our happiness. Agency is essential to perfectibility, and meekness is essential to the wise use of agency - and to our recovery when we have misused our agency."
...
"Meekness ... is more than self-restraint; it is the presentation of self in a posture of kindess and gentleness, reflecting certitude, strength, serenity, and a healthy self-esteem and self-control."
...
"Granted, none of us likes, or should like, to be disregarded, to be silenced, to see a flawed argument prevail, or to endure gratuitous discourtesy. But such circumstances seldom constitute that field of action from which meekness calls upon us to retire gracefully. Unfortunately, we usually do battle, unmeekly, over far less justifiable things, such as 'turf.'
...
"there are some things worth being aroused about, as the Book of Mormon says, such as our families, our homes, our liberties, and our sacred religion. (see Alma 43:45.) But if all our anxiety amounts to is our so-called image, it's an image that needs to be displaced anyway, so that we can receive His image in our countenances. (see Alma 5:14)."
...
"the meek are not awestruck by the many frustrations of life; they are more easily mobilized for eternal causes and less easily immobilized by the disappointments of the day."
"Because they make fewer demands of life, the meek are less easily disappointed. They are less concerned with their entitlements than with their assignments."
"When we are truly meek, we are not concerned with being pushed around, but are grateful to be pushed along. When we are truly meek, we do not engage in shoulder-shrugging acceptance but in shoulder-squaring, in order that we might better bear the burdens of life and of our fellow beings."
"Meekness can also help us in coping with the injustices of life - of which there are quite a few. By the way, will not these experiences with mortal injustices generate within us even more adoration of the perfect justice of God - another of His attributes?"
...
"Meekness means less concern over being taken for granted, and more concern over being taken by the hand. Less concern over revising our own plans for us and more concern about adopting His plans for us is another sure sign of meekness."
...
"There are, brothers and sisters, ever so many human situtations in which the only additional time and recognition and space to be made available must come from the meek who will yield - in order to make time and recognition and space available for others. There could be no magnanimity without humility. Meekness is not displayed humility; it is the real thing. True meekness is never proud of itself, never conscious of itself."
...
"The meek use power and authority properly, no doubt because their gentleness and meekness reflect a love unfeigned, a genuine caring. The influence they exercise flows from a deep concern: 'No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion , by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.' (D&C 121:41)"
...
"even if our being meek results in our being abused in this world, we need to remember that we are being fitted for chores in another and better world - one which will be everlasting, not fleeting."
...
"You will see far more examples of those in desperate need of meekness than you will ever see of the truly meek being abused."
...
"Yes, there are real costs associated with meekness. A significant down payment must be made. But it can come from our sufficient supply of pride. We must also be willing to endure the subsequent erosion of the unbecoming ego. Furthermore, our hearts will be broken in order that they might be rebuilt. As Ezekiel said, one's task is to 'make you a new heart and a new spirit.' (Ezekiel 18:31) There is no way that such dismantling, such erosion, such rebuilding can occur without real cost in pain, pride, adjustments, and even some dismay. Yet since we cannot be 'acceptable before God save [we are] meek and lowly in heart' (Moroni 7:44), the reality of that awesome requirement must be heeded! Better to save one's soul than to save one's face."
As I read this talk, and especially toward the end, the only image in my mind was that of the Savior shrinking not before the bitter cup (see D&C 19:18). He was given to drink and he drank ... and did not shrink. He was meek and did His father's will. He took it.
To play a variation on the phrase, just do it, I offer the phrase, just take it. If you are pressed to go a mile, then go two - just take it. If your coat is taken from you, give also your cloke. If you are cursed, hated, abused, judged wrongly, persecuted, condemned, accused, thought ill of, pushed to your wits end ... just take it. Did not Jesus take all of this? Are we not to be perfect, like Jesus?
Showing posts with label Cup of Maxwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cup of Maxwell. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Engaging, Capacity to Act and Feeling Love for Others
This selection comes from this talk.
6. We need always to make allowance in the kingdom for the fact that this is a divine church full of imperfect people! Indeed, “the net gathereth of every kind.” For instance, some members among us have an unfortunate and exclusionary condescension toward others, while other members have a quiet certitude that causes them to assert their testimonies humbly because the Spirit has witnessed to them; they witness to others to maintain their integrity; they tell others the truth of salvational things “as they were, as they are, and as they shall become.” These two kinds of members read the same scriptures, but one disengages, Jonah-like, almost with delight, while the other will not leave his post in “Nineveh” so long as there are any souls to be saved. Probably the differing response is rooted in the differing capacity to love. The presence of absolute truth or apocalyptic insights in one who lacks the capacity to love is likely to produce some behavioral anomalies. Love leads us into—not away from—Nineveh: into the fray, just as Jesus was involved with mankind, for as G. K. Chesterton observed, He carried his five wounds in the front of the fray.
Some want involvement without giving themselves. Some want the wonders of religion without the work—there is no way. Others want the thrills of theology without the hard doctrines—there is no way! When we are serious about change, it is “not enough to merely leave Egypt: one must also travel to the Promised Land!”
commentary: the above speaks of commitment and engaging others. you either engage in service and the cause of helping others, or you don't. the gospel is about action. and what causes you to act? keep on reading.
7. We must make place for the gospel and the Church more generously in our lives if we are to grow in our capacity to both feel and to act. Education, the media, and what we know from the scriptures have enlarged our circles of concern and feeling. But within each of our circles of concern, there is a much smaller circle of competency, and it needs to grow too.
C. S. Lewis observed, “The more often a man feels without acting, the less often he will be able to act, and in the long run, the less often he will be able to feel.” In countless ways the Church not only enlarges our circles of concern, but it also helps us to carry out the concerns we have. Significantly, Nephi, Paul, and Moroni—cultures and centuries apart—each observed that individuals and whole cultures can, by sin, reach a point where they are past feeling. Ironically, lasciviousness, which exploits sensuous feelings, results finally in a loss of a capacity to feel. In our own society the sad consequences of too much exulting in feeling—of sex divorced from love, and the emptiness of emotion without principle—will wash over us for generations. In the declining society of Moroni’s time, citizens were described as being without order, without mercy, without civilization, and past feeling after they had “lost their love, one towards another. …” (Moro. 9:5.)
commentary: love brings about wanting and desire. love and desire should spur us to action. but when we disassociate love and action, we begin to lose the capacity to feel. when we don't feel, we don't care, when we don't care, we don't act and when we don't act evil triumphs.
8. We must be more quick to realize the enormous implications of the doctrine of immortality and how our knowledge of that reality will set us apart in this era. One can’t help but admire the cosmic heroism of those decent people who persist in goodness in spite of their agnosticism, but we still should see others differently because of this doctrine. Ours is no mere biological brotherhood with life as a brief encounter, but ours is a brotherhood that is fashioned in the realization that relationships will persist a million years from now, and more. Where we do not so relate to each other, we diminish the credibility of our commitment to this doctrine in the eyes of others. For a peculiar people, our friendships should be peculiarly rich.
commentary: to me, the above really hits home and answers the question - why the gospel? if mankind is to become immortal, do we want immortal evil or immortal goodness running the universe?
In summary, we see the world, life, and death differently. This is not a random, mutant planet with people who will be enveloped in nothingness; it is a special place, a planet with a purpose, for, as Isaiah observed, the Lord created it to be inhabited. (See Isa. 45:18.)
We are all stewards, and we ought to approach this planet and its resources as carefully as Adam dressed the Garden. In seeking to establish dominion over the earth, it ought to be a righteous dominion. Still, this earth is not a place we need to be so reluctant to leave. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, Christian courage rests on a love of life that may need to take the form of a willingness to die; it is not the willingness to die that reflects a disdain or disaffection for life.
Without immortality there can be no real and lasting meaning to life. Jesus has not only immunized us against the lasting sting of the grave, but his teachings can also help us not to “look upon death with any degree of terror.” (Alma 27:28.) The same Jesus promised us, through one of his prophets, that if we could live according to his word, we would have, in this life, a knowledge of what is “just and true and render every man his due” (justice and discernment); we would live peaceably with others (peacefulness); we would rear our families without fighting and quarreling, teaching them to love one another (the capacity to love learned in happy homes); and we would care for the needy (a program for poverty). (See Mosiah 4.) In a sense, while others have the slogans, we have the solutions that, if applied, will carry us to “a state of happiness which hath no end.” (Morm. 7:7.)
6. We need always to make allowance in the kingdom for the fact that this is a divine church full of imperfect people! Indeed, “the net gathereth of every kind.” For instance, some members among us have an unfortunate and exclusionary condescension toward others, while other members have a quiet certitude that causes them to assert their testimonies humbly because the Spirit has witnessed to them; they witness to others to maintain their integrity; they tell others the truth of salvational things “as they were, as they are, and as they shall become.” These two kinds of members read the same scriptures, but one disengages, Jonah-like, almost with delight, while the other will not leave his post in “Nineveh” so long as there are any souls to be saved. Probably the differing response is rooted in the differing capacity to love. The presence of absolute truth or apocalyptic insights in one who lacks the capacity to love is likely to produce some behavioral anomalies. Love leads us into—not away from—Nineveh: into the fray, just as Jesus was involved with mankind, for as G. K. Chesterton observed, He carried his five wounds in the front of the fray.
Some want involvement without giving themselves. Some want the wonders of religion without the work—there is no way. Others want the thrills of theology without the hard doctrines—there is no way! When we are serious about change, it is “not enough to merely leave Egypt: one must also travel to the Promised Land!”
commentary: the above speaks of commitment and engaging others. you either engage in service and the cause of helping others, or you don't. the gospel is about action. and what causes you to act? keep on reading.
7. We must make place for the gospel and the Church more generously in our lives if we are to grow in our capacity to both feel and to act. Education, the media, and what we know from the scriptures have enlarged our circles of concern and feeling. But within each of our circles of concern, there is a much smaller circle of competency, and it needs to grow too.
C. S. Lewis observed, “The more often a man feels without acting, the less often he will be able to act, and in the long run, the less often he will be able to feel.” In countless ways the Church not only enlarges our circles of concern, but it also helps us to carry out the concerns we have. Significantly, Nephi, Paul, and Moroni—cultures and centuries apart—each observed that individuals and whole cultures can, by sin, reach a point where they are past feeling. Ironically, lasciviousness, which exploits sensuous feelings, results finally in a loss of a capacity to feel. In our own society the sad consequences of too much exulting in feeling—of sex divorced from love, and the emptiness of emotion without principle—will wash over us for generations. In the declining society of Moroni’s time, citizens were described as being without order, without mercy, without civilization, and past feeling after they had “lost their love, one towards another. …” (Moro. 9:5.)
commentary: love brings about wanting and desire. love and desire should spur us to action. but when we disassociate love and action, we begin to lose the capacity to feel. when we don't feel, we don't care, when we don't care, we don't act and when we don't act evil triumphs.
8. We must be more quick to realize the enormous implications of the doctrine of immortality and how our knowledge of that reality will set us apart in this era. One can’t help but admire the cosmic heroism of those decent people who persist in goodness in spite of their agnosticism, but we still should see others differently because of this doctrine. Ours is no mere biological brotherhood with life as a brief encounter, but ours is a brotherhood that is fashioned in the realization that relationships will persist a million years from now, and more. Where we do not so relate to each other, we diminish the credibility of our commitment to this doctrine in the eyes of others. For a peculiar people, our friendships should be peculiarly rich.
commentary: to me, the above really hits home and answers the question - why the gospel? if mankind is to become immortal, do we want immortal evil or immortal goodness running the universe?
In summary, we see the world, life, and death differently. This is not a random, mutant planet with people who will be enveloped in nothingness; it is a special place, a planet with a purpose, for, as Isaiah observed, the Lord created it to be inhabited. (See Isa. 45:18.)
We are all stewards, and we ought to approach this planet and its resources as carefully as Adam dressed the Garden. In seeking to establish dominion over the earth, it ought to be a righteous dominion. Still, this earth is not a place we need to be so reluctant to leave. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, Christian courage rests on a love of life that may need to take the form of a willingness to die; it is not the willingness to die that reflects a disdain or disaffection for life.
Without immortality there can be no real and lasting meaning to life. Jesus has not only immunized us against the lasting sting of the grave, but his teachings can also help us not to “look upon death with any degree of terror.” (Alma 27:28.) The same Jesus promised us, through one of his prophets, that if we could live according to his word, we would have, in this life, a knowledge of what is “just and true and render every man his due” (justice and discernment); we would live peaceably with others (peacefulness); we would rear our families without fighting and quarreling, teaching them to love one another (the capacity to love learned in happy homes); and we would care for the needy (a program for poverty). (See Mosiah 4.) In a sense, while others have the slogans, we have the solutions that, if applied, will carry us to “a state of happiness which hath no end.” (Morm. 7:7.)
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
"A Cup of Maxwell" Series
I can't remember when it was - maybe when I was a recently returned full-time missionary - but I had this desire to read and study all the talks by Neal A. Maxwell. The way he articulates the gospel clicks with me can causes introspection.
And so I decided to start a study series call A Cup of Maxwell in which as I read all his talks, I will copy some of the most thought and action provoking passages.
Now, all his talks deserve to be read in their entirety, and therefore, I invite the reader to click on this link or this link.
Let me kick off this series from one of his first talks ... one that I read today.
Referring to the gosple, he closed this talk with: With such a great message, can we afford not to be articulate in our homes and wherever we are? Passivity and inarticulateness about this “marvelous work and a wonder” can diminish the faith of others, for as Austin Farrer observed, “Though argument does not create belief, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced, but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it nourishes a climate in which belief may flourish.”
This is the main reason to read his talks: he articulates the "why" of the gospel so well ... and in the above quote, he articulates why we need to be able to articulate the why so well.
And so I decided to start a study series call A Cup of Maxwell in which as I read all his talks, I will copy some of the most thought and action provoking passages.
Now, all his talks deserve to be read in their entirety, and therefore, I invite the reader to click on this link or this link.
Let me kick off this series from one of his first talks ... one that I read today.
Referring to the gosple, he closed this talk with: With such a great message, can we afford not to be articulate in our homes and wherever we are? Passivity and inarticulateness about this “marvelous work and a wonder” can diminish the faith of others, for as Austin Farrer observed, “Though argument does not create belief, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced, but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it nourishes a climate in which belief may flourish.”
This is the main reason to read his talks: he articulates the "why" of the gospel so well ... and in the above quote, he articulates why we need to be able to articulate the why so well.
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